Postmodern Poetry - Confessional Poets Essay -- essays research papers

Postmodern Poetry - Confessional Poets      With World War II finally oer and a chapter in history written, the next chapter is about to begin. The twentieth century brings with it a new literary movement called postmodern, where verse is "breaking from modernism" and taking on a whole new style Within postmodern poetry emerge confessional poets whom remove the mask that has masked poetry from previous generations and their literature become autobiographical in nature detailing their lifes most intense personal experiences, therefore becoming the focus of their work.      Considered to be the "mainstream of postmodern poetry" confessional poetry did not hit its peak until the late twentieth century. Confessional poetry is in direct contrast to the poetry of William Butler Yeats. Yeats poetry, Romantic in nature, depended on symbols and images to behave his themes. Confessional poetry is very direct and conveys the inner most feelings of the post modern poets. The twentieth century brought forth many confessional and post confessional poets who appe ard to be embarking on unmarked territory. Confessional poets Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, Theodore Roehtke and post confessional poet Adreinne Rich all dealt with taboo subjects. Their life held an intensity of personal experience that became the focus of their work. Confessional poetry does not simply touch upon feeling. Confessional poetry allows sensation or looks at emotion through an examining eye rather to drive poems, permeating each poem with an air of necessity, the necessity of conveying and aiming to understand emotion through confession.      Postmodern poet, Robert Lowells poetry really captures the true essence of confessional poetry by sharing his own raw emotions with the reader. The mask that once was placed upon the invite of the symbolist, Eliot and Pound, Lowell removes. The speaker of his poems is unequivocally him self. Lowell does not spare himself in his poetry. In his poem "Man and Wife" he deals directly with his own marriage. The reader gets grotesque glimpses into his matrimonial life. He begins "Tamed by Miltown, we lie on mothers bed." And later tells how "All night I have held your hand,/ as if you had/ a fourth time go about the kingdom of the mad-/ its hackney... ...bspThe thing itself and not the myth.Diving deep into the inner most recesses of her self, exploring the wreck of her own life, Rich feels compelled to map the geography of her self. Rich declares in a forward to her poems "with the failure of patriarchal politics" and "to be a woman at this time"     is to know extraordinary forms of     anger, joy, and impatience, love and hope. Poetry,     words on paper, are necessary but not enough      we need to touch the living who share our    & nbspdetermination that the sexual myths underlying     the human condition can and shall be changed.Richs work is personal, intimate and confessional.Confessional and post confessional poets clearly chose to write about subjects that were taboo. That took their private lives and deep inner thoughts and made them public. Confessional poets took the baton from the moderns such as Yeats and Eliot and took poetry to another(prenominal) whole level. They opened up their heart, mind and feelings to a society that was able to relate.